to market & les coings

weekend markets.

i love them, especially when the sun is shining and the air is crisp. people strolling and looking at what s available. either planning ahead for the week, or just being bowled over and buying the best seasonal produce that s on offer. like i often do, with recipes and the day s dinner already in my head.

then sampling different delicacies: churros and hot chocolate for those who haven t had breakfast yet, oysters and champagne for the chique, Vietnamese spring rolls with a lot of sriracha sauce to wake up, Moroccan pancakes with goat s cheese and honey and a pipingly hot sweet mint tea, typical shrimp croquettes to remind us of the Belgian seaside, ofcourse the baguettes filled with anything you like as a quick lunch, or even the hamburgers and the sausages with loads of fried onions for those with a hangover from the previous night s revelries.

it s all there.

naturally, one needn t worry about not having the right utensils for cooking a warming tajine for example...

or decorating your front porch and your house with flowers. although now is the season for chrysanthemums (my mother s favorite)...

and don t you just want to keep touching these?

but we found us some quinces. i love what they re called in French: les coings (pron. k-WANG)... sometimes i like to go around mumbling 'coing coing coing...' (makes me sound like a duck too, i know)

the fruits are very fragrant, impossible to eat raw because they re so hard, but they make the bestest ever jelly. and since my mom-in-law is the best jam-maker i know... here s her recipe:

QUINCE JELLY

INGREDIENTS

quinces, perhaps easiest to start with about 3 kg
sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
nutmeg
a few cloves
some mace

METHOD:

wash the quinces and cut them into smallish pieces. put them in a large pot with a lid, add the spices and just cover with water. boil until the fruit is soft. strain the leftover water with the fruit through a cheesecloth over a large bowl overnight to catch the juices. measure the juice and mix with about half to three quarters of the weight in sugar (so if you have one liter of juice, add 500 to 750 gr of sugar). boil the syrup until thickened and when a little amount put on a cold saucer immediatly jellifies... it won t react like jam, but will remain a little syrupy, more like a thick honey.
when ready, put into sterilized jars and close, then leave to cool.

my mom-in-law had to make this in batches because there were so many quinces, but she tried different cooking times and the results are pretty interesting. the first came out quite light, then a little more cooking produced a very floral tasting jelly (with the scent of roses) and the last one almost like caramel... all though, very very yummy on buttered toast.

i cannot wait to see what the market will offer next weekend.

contemplation

last weekend we probably had the last heatwave of this year...

today, we have rain...

and in the meantime, i saw a rainbow. twice!

the dahlias in Vordenstein were in full bloom when we visited. i think they might be my favorite flower.

Kobe

Hot Lips

Night Butterfly

Beertje (Little Bear)

Eveline

Julio

beautiful, don t you agree?

i wonder if they re edible too?

like the crystallized violets i used to make these sea-salt chocolate snaps, inspired by Mr. Nigel Slater.

SEA-SALT CHOCOLATE SNAPS

INGREDIENTS:

200 gr dark chocolate
small handful of almond slivers
a tablespoon of very fine caster sugar
small handful of pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
a few crystallized violets (or crystallized rose petals), lightly crushed
sea-salt flakes

METHOD:

1. melt the chocolate au-bain-marie (don t rush or it will go grainy)
2. while the chocolate is melting, toast the almonds slivers in the oven at about 200°C for about 5 minutes (keep an eye on them, they can burn very quickly), then sprinkle with the sugar and toast for another 3 minutes
3. line a cookie sheet with baking parchment and spoon on circles of the melted chocolate
4. quickly sprinkle with the toasted almonds, the pistachios, and the crystallized flower petals
5. give the snaps a very light sprinkling of sea-salt flakes
6. leave to cool completely before storing in an airtight container

according to Mr. Thomas Keller of the French Laundry, salt (and vinegar too) lifts and enhances already existing flavors, whereas pepper and other spices or herbs actually add another flavor-dimension...

and that is exactly what the sea-salt in these chocolate snaps does, every ingredient seems more outspoken...

lovely.

those little signs of autumn

it s definitely here, the sun sits lower in the skies, the air smells faintly of a good wood fire being stoked to keep out the chill, the leaves are slowly turning and getting ready to provide us with a final spectacle of color, and the fruits of the season are at their best...

autumn.

apples and nuts, what better way to combine them with spices and sugar in a sticky yummy cake. being an avid fan of Delicious. magazine i was lucky to find a super recipe in the october 2011 issue to do just that. i did tweak it just a little bit. since i had no ground ginger, i substited by grating in some fresh ginger and just to make life easier, i used ground allspice berries which contain all those aromas of cloves and cinnamon and nutmeg.

so here it is:

STICKY APPLE PECAN AND GINGER CAKE

INGREDIENTS:

150 gr unsalted butter
150 gr soft dark brown muscovado sugar
150 gr golden syrup
200 ml milk
250 gr plain all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoon ground allspice berries
2 cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
2 organic eggs, beaten
75 gr pecans, roughly chopped
2 pieces of candied stem ginger, chopped quite finely
2 crisp eating apples, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
(about 250 gr when chopped)

METHOD:

1. preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a 2 liter loaf tin (it really has to be this large because the cake does rise quite a bit) by greasing and lining with baking parchment
2. melt the butter, the sugar and syrup. once melted, add the milk and set aside to cool
3. sift the flour with the baking powder. add the ground allspice and the grated ginger
4. make a well in the center and slowly beat in the cooled sugar mixture
5. mix in the beaten eggs, chopped stem ginger, pecans and apple chunks
6. pour the mixture (it will be more fluid than a normal cake mix) into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean
7. cool in the tin for about 5 minutes and then lift out and leave to cool on a wire rack
8. can be served lukewarm or cold
9. once completely cooled, wrap in baking parchment and cling film and keep in an airtight tin for up to 5 days, the flavor will improve (or so it says in the magazine, but i doubt it ll survive that long!)

what can i say? i just had a slice with some cream mixed with a little bit of cream cheese... and it tastes of... well, all things nice like sugar and spice...

autumn.